This invention relates, generally, to a staging apparatus which is used in a sheet-feeding environment, and in particular, it relates to an apparatus which is capable of receiving a sheet which is travelling at a high velocity in a document track, decelerating it, and stopping it at a predetermined location without doing damage to the leading edge of the sheet.
One prior-art staging apparatus, which is used in the handling of sheets or documents, like checks being moved in a document track, utilizes a finger-type blade, for example, which is moved into the track in the path of an oncoming document to stop it by having its leading edge abut thereagainst. Suitable transport, feed rollers positioned along the track are used to feed the stopped document further downstream along the track when the finger-type blade is removed from the track.
Another prior-art, staging apparatus utilizes a pinch-gate toggle which employs a pivoting lever which pushes the document against one of the side walls of the document track to stop it instead of using a finger-type blade as mentioned in the previous paragraph.